More than 90% of 200 frozen seafood items are being sold in supermarkets, shops now is the product of the companies in Vietnam, according to estimates of the supermarket.
It is a decade since the first frozen seafood penetrated into the supermarket.
From Pangasius (cá tra) to Jullien 's mud carp (cá linh)
In 2002, after the lawsuit of the U.S. fishermen about the dumping of Vietnam catfish, the consumers pay attention to the whole of Pangasius, fillets begin sold all over the market. In August 2002, the domestic market appeared more than 30 dishes processed from catfish of Agifish. Products are made from Agifish’s fish include sausage, “chà bông”, glutinous rice chapattis, instant dried fish, fish ball, fish clay pots, grilled fish paste, spring rolls ... and some kinds of snack which is processed for a party as stomach of fish, fish fillets ... Agifish has a private investment for fish preliminary processing factory include: frozen whole fish, fish slice, fish fillets ... and value-added goods such as fish clay pots, fish ball, fired fish ... which is used for domestic consumption.
Other companies also started to bring the catfish into the domestic market as HMI Company put catfish in hotels and restaurants. Vietnam-Asia Company launched around 30 types of catfish. An Vinh Company selected that they specialized in one of pangasius that is fillets for distribution to supermarkets. By the end of 2005, the market has about 50 products from Pangasius of ten large processing and export companies as Agifish, Fiex, APT ... Even supermarket has also built its own brand to sell processing pangasius.
Before Agifish, some companies also brought catfish into the supermarket but there was not attention, it did not make the supermarket sales sharply increased.
About two years later, the product of Jullien 's mud carp fish are made an offer in domestic supermarkets by ANTESCO Company after exporting this canned fish to Eastern Europe and the U.S.
Some companies estimate the sales of their domestic consumption had reached 50-60 billion VND per year.
From preliminary processing to the available food
Currently, in addition to products processed from two fish above, the user can select anabas (cá rô), goby (cá bống), and kind of gudgeon (lòng tong). Fish, shrimp not only are encapsulated in the frozen, but also appear in the hot pot dishes or fish clay pots. According to the SGfishco Company, it is convenient that a package of made-up consommé is used together with hotpot dishes and it helped them improve the position for supermarket suppliers. The An Vinh, Phi Long, Phu Thanh Company exploit the needs of Saigonese to enjoy out-of-season freshwater fish with anabas (cá rô), goby (cá bống), and kind of gudgeon (lòng tong). Beside preliminarily categories, there are soaked spices ... Compare with the purchase of fresh fish, a tray of frozen anabas (cá rô) is expensive more than 3-4 times, but two factors that make the advantage for this product is "available" (even out-of-season) and "handy" ( has preliminarily - clean) helped products sold throughout the year in the freezer in the supermarket.
Walking a round in the supermarket, the processed food can be seen basically to be enough for a family meal, from a sour soup to goby with pepper and even fried food. There are about 50 suppliers win seats on the tray of frozen foods as braised fish, distilled salted fish, tomato sauce fish ball, dried fish ... with the price vary from 700-4,000 VND/100g of the same dish, with a form of packaging by tin box with lid open rings for shock handy, container by earthen pot, or aluminum film packaging easy to warm, baked... Even with the same materials, suppliers trying to change the taste to attract the customers, for example, fish eggs laced with wasabi, spicy pepper, soaked nuggets, breaded fried ruffled ...
According to records from the supermarket, in the period 2000 - 2009, processed food industry is strongly developed throughout the years 2004 - 2008 when the supermarkets continued to expand sale points. According to manufacturers, processed products or preliminarily processed are mainly sold through supermarkets in major cities, with about 80% of sales. Besides domestic products, the East Sea, An Vinh, Trung Son Company... put on sale in supermarkets Alaska salmon, the Tuna, fish imported from Japan as sama (name Maruo), fish eggs shishamo (name Yamasan ) and saba fish (Maruo) ... continuous renewal processing by the soaked nuggets, skewer to grill, cut slices eaten raw, soaked spicy mustard ... According Maximark, 20% of their customers buy processed food every week, about 5% can buy processed food around 100,000-150,000 VND per week.
Bich Thuy
Source: SGTT
Translated by Vietfish Community
